a certain understated stupidity
"A Certain Understated Stupidity," December 23, 2022 (#357)
title from Seinfeld 9.10, "The Strike" (December 18, 1997)
The Finishing School by Muriel Spark (2004)
The Music School by John Updike (1966)
The Topeka School by Ben Lerner (2019)
penultimate line from Soul Music by Terry Pratchett (1994)
last line from Gun, with Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem (1994)
A Certain Understated Stupidity
The legend celebrated in the poem, comparing it with the more sober,
crashed to a distant floor. An elevator chuckled remotely. A woman,
the image of pure classical form we inherited from the Renaissance,
sat down at her desk, ready to speak, and she did; but her words
did not press her when she looked startled and said nothing
as the abusive parent contesting the child’s reality. I was both on
messages and conveyed them with great kindness and pleasure
done by machines, but they become swamped in their own glue
in which all the regimes of value had collapsed, irradiated or gassed
to such an extent that it had a distinct personality. Anyone could
look at what passed for chairs. The room had been shaped.
Friends 3.2, "The One Where No One's Ready" (September 26, 1996)
Seinfeld 9.10, "The Strike" (December 18, 1997) (from here)
12-22-22
from here
10-29-21
12-23-22
